Judge Orders Apple, Amazon to Settle Over ‘App Store’ Name (Updated)

A judge ordered Apple and Amazon to hold settlement talks to resolve the iPhone maker's copyright-infringement suit over the e-retailer's use of the phrase "app store."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco told the tech giants to negotiate a settlement before the trial scheduled for August, according to court documents obtained by TheWrap.

Apple filed suit against Amazon in March 2011, after the Seattle-based company launched an "Appstore" to sell software for Google's Android devices and its own Kindle tablets.

Apple alleged that this infringed on its trademark for its App Store, which went live in 2008. Amazon claims the term is generic.

Earlier this month, Amazon won a dismissal of Apple's claim that the use of "Appstore" is false advertising. A federal judge in Oakland found that Apple had not shown that Amazon's advertising attempted to mimic Apple's and that the Cupertino, Calif.-based behemoth presented no evidence that customers were misled by Amazon's use of the term.

The judge ordered the two companies to meet in her courtroom on March 21 at 9:30 a.m. for a settlement conference.